This image is of Paul Gauguin playing the harmonium in Alphonse Mucha’s studio. As you can see, he’s forgotten his trousers. No idea what’s really going on here, but it’s always struck me as an excellent visual representation of the Art of Winging It.

I vividly remember a conversation I had with my ...

When working with my coach this week, I was talking about a situation which was making me feel a bit uncomfortable and scared as well as excited.  At the root of it all was a fear of rejection.  Once we’d uncovered that, things got easier because I’m well versed in rejection through work… I just had...

I love food. I really love it.

I don’t mean always I’m greedy and forever gorging. No.  I just love different tastes and textures and sensations and smells. I love the peace and flow I get from cooking. I ADORE cook books and food magazines.

I’m totally passionate about food.

But, until fairly recently...

I’ve lived in my house for 3 winters so far and the first was really hard. I’ve always held the internal narrative that I’m not a morning person, which is a tricky story to have when you’re a lone parent getting two little ones to primary school. I didn’t make things easy for myself with that story!...

A friend recently posted this quote on my social media timeline…

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity”.

(It looks like this quote, commonly attributed to Dorothy Parker, was actually said by Ellen Parr)

My friend was prompted to share from a chat we had where I said that ...

This blog first appeared on the Creative Entrepreneurs Club.  If you're a creative type, and you've not come across CEC you should really check it out.  There's a wealth of support, inspiration and connections waiting for you there.

Recently, I’ve become a pirate.

Not the bad kind who steal stuff.

A ...

I’m not going to lie, things are tough right now.

Yesterday I felt more drained and flat than I possibly have ever felt before. It wasn’t very nice, but today is a new day and things feel less bleak. This week I feel wrapped in layers of loss. Loss of my dear dad, but also loss of hugging brilliant p...

This year I’ve become “an expert” in a surprising range of things. I lost all my contracts I’d lined up for 2020/2021 by mid April. Some were frozen, others cancelled. Grieving for the year I thought I was going to have, and grieving for what at the time, felt like the end of my career as I knew it ...

It’s an ongoing point of discussion in every self employed or small business sector I’ve been involved with. How can you price yourself in a way that reflects your worth but also creates a sustainable thriving business?

There’s also the thorny issue of working for free.

A subject that is a continual ...

I want to tell you about my shed. It’s quite a long story. Potentially a little dull. It is, after all, a blog post about a shed.

It’s smart though, isn’t it?  My smart shed.

Some people close to me have heard a lot about this shed over the last couple of years.

It’s just a shed. Not a fancy outdoor...

Since 2014 I have dipped in and out of Yoga With Adriene (YWA) on YouTube. At some points I’ve cultivated the daily practice she gentle encourages her viewers to adopt. And then life gets in the way... But unlike that ill-fated gym membership or the bike that sits neglected in the shed, I always fin...

I work with a lot of people who are exploring or embarking on the transition from employment to self-employment for the first time. There’s lots of things to unpick around this move, from dealing with increased risk to how to plan and have a strategy that works for that person and their business.

One...

This is the smile of someone who has achieved something she didn't feel very certain about.

There's been a bit of that going on lately: a dive into the unknown because my instincts tell me that it's the right thing to do. Covid has played a part in this, as it has for so many of us. The career abys...

Kindness is one of my core values.  

My others, if you’re curious, are Optimism and Grit.  Of course, there are loads of other values that I hold dear, but those three form a foundation for me; a triangular anchor to steady my ship in a storm or provide me with the momentum to get on with stuff.

I’m w...

Today the sun is forecast to shine all day.

A day after the summer solstice and midsummer night.

And it is my half birthday or as Alice might call it, my un-birthday.

Let me tell you a story about my half birthday and why I’ve found so much joy in celebrating the half rather than the whole.

I was born t...